Saturday, 26 December 2015

There was an article about a child in Assam taking the precious
belongings of its family to safety using a bamboo-made raft and a bamboo stick.
This snap was taken during the great Assam floods that ravaged the region. This
had moved the minds of people across the country, forcing the Mollywood
director Jayaraj to take cognizance of this event and make a film on it to
highlight the plights of the flood-ravaged people in our country. Incidentally,
the film Ottaal became a huge hit among the audience despite the fact that it had no
element of a commercial movie. The Mollywood director dedicated the film to his
mother and the child on whom it was based. Moreover, the actor was moved by the
courage and dedication shown by the child in the face of the calamity, which is
so much lacking in the present-day kids.

Malayalam Film Industry

The Malayalam film industry, often called as Mollywood, has
seen the emergence of flicks of high value in the past. This is mainly due to
the presence of movie directors who think differently. They look for events in
the society that are closely watched. Whenever the filmmakers come across one
such event, they embark on film making. Moreover, these flicks are made using
the shoestring budget. Most often these flicks have either second-rung artists
or fresh faces enacting different roles. Despite these constraints, they garner
required support from among the audience in good numbers. This happens because
the filmmakers are able to find out the true stories that affect the society
most. In contrast, directors from other language film industries across the
country go by what sells the most in the Box Office.

Malayalam Film Ottaal

This Malayalam flick is based on
the life of an Assamese child Ashidul who dared the odds to safely move the
most precious possessions of his family – three Goats – to safety using
a locally assembled raft. This dare-devil oaring of the raft across the swollen
Brahmaputra River was photographed by an Assamese photographer Ritu Raj Konwar working with the Hindu as a local correspondent. Based
on this photograph, an article was written and published a few months ago this
year (2015). The boy soon became the embodiment of suffering of the flood
victims in the state of Assam. The movie director Jayaraj happened to read this
article and see the photograph. He was so moved by the commitment and
dare-devil attitude of the child that he decided to make a flick on the commendable
deed of the child. The film went on to bag the Golden Peacock for the best
environmental film and another award for the best adaptive screenplay in the
recently concluded International Film Festival of Kerala in Thiruvananthapuram.
Before this, this film was screened in other film festivals and received
critical appreciations from both the movie lovers and critics alike.

Film Director’s Gesture

The Assamese child’s dedication to the family,
resourcefulness and courage inspired the director Jayaraj to script a movie on
him. Moreover, the ace director wanted to highlight the environmental impact the
flooding brings through this flick. He also looks at the causes that led to the
flooding of the river. The success he got by portraying the plight of the child
forced him to think of some ways to reward the child for its exemplary courage
and dedication. Hence, he contacted the photographer who took the snap of the
child to find its roots. The child Ashidul is from a small village Kuchiani of
Morigaon district of Assam. With the local help, the director took pains to
travel to this small village to see the child in person and hand over a token
amount and the picture frame of the child oaring through the swollen
Brahmaputra River. Moreover, the filmmaker has offered to take care of the
education of the child as long as he remains in the academic field. Through a
Non-governmental Organization (NGO) based in Assam, he has also decided to
support the whole village by mobilizing the corpus. The director has shown what
the social responsibility is. After reading this story, please feel free to
support the deserving people.

Monday, 30 November 2015

Riding on positive reviews, Malayalam movie Premam has
become the highest grossing film in Mollywood in recent years. The success of
the flick has given the much needed break to three newcomers in Mollywood such
as Madonna Sabastian, Anupama Parameshwaran and Sai Pallavi. It is considered as the coming-of-age movie
due to the freshness of the storyline and an ideal mixture of romance and
comedy. The other casts of the film include Shabareesh Varma, Nivin Pauly,
Vinay Forrt, Soubin Sahir and Krishna Shankar. The flick is directed by
Alphonse Putharen and produced by Anwar Rasheed under Anwar Rasheed
Entertainment banner. Its background score and music are composed by Rajesh
Murugesan.

Success of the Movie

Despite being a film with no super star, it clicked among the youths of the state as it tried to portray the easy-going mentality of the students in their college days. The story-line has scents and pollen of comedy to make it a nice watchable movie. Probably this could be the reason why it played in the minds of the young people of the state. It slowly picked up to storm the Box Office, giving all the new faces in it an opportunity of the lifetime. The film worked so well that its copyrights have been acquired by the movie-makers from other film industries as well, including Tamil and Telugu filmmakers.

Criticism for Premam Makers

In some quarters, people have come with an allegation that the story of the blockbuster Malayalam film was copied from a Hindi movie by the name Hunterr. This story also has a story of a guy who tries to love three ladies for sex. The film had many spicy scenes, note able among them was that involving Radhika Apte. However, this film could not make any impact. Both the films had striking similarities in its overall script. However, the Malayalam film was more good as the hero only tried to love and marry girls in different stages in his life in it. Despite this criticism, the Malayalam film had more takers when compared to the so called Hindi film Hunterr. After seeing this video, you decide what is the truth?

Wednesday, 18 November 2015

In Mollywood, there is no dearth of stories that can easily be identified with masses. That is the reason many of the films have been
dubbed into different languages. Many of the stories could be traced to one real-time story or the other. Moreover, there are gutsy and creative film directors who would like to experiment with stories and characters. Unlike other film industries in our country, these films are also made with shoe-string budget. Yet they fare well at the Box Office.

Manichitra
Thaazhu – Story of the Magic Key:This film talks about the split personality as a disorder. It dwells on the issues faced by the immediate members of the family when a person exhibits this
disorder. This film was remade into Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Hindi languages.

How Old
Are You – Age Does Not Matter:This movie tries to do away the perception in our country that people can build their career only at young age. Moreover, the flick also blasts the belief that
women can only become homemakers. It is remade in other languages with same name.

Drishyam –
A Visual Illusion:This movie talks about a person who successfully creates an illusion before the police so that he can save his family from the punishment after he commits an
unexpected crime to save her daughter from a maniac.

Bangalore
Days – Getting Together of CousinsThis movie talks about the journey of the cousins from different parts of Kerala for a get together at a relative’s place in Bangalore and the way they
spend their time together at the venue.

Katha
Parayumbol – Story About the Life of a Barber.

The film is about how a barber's life is turned upside down
when a film unit comes to the village for a shoot, and the news spreads that
superstar Ashok Raj (Mammootty) is the barber's childhood friend.

Thursday, 16 July 2015

The politicians try to butt in all the things in the name of
the electorate. They say that they are entitled to assume the leadership
position of anything to better the situation. Instead of the betterment of the
setups, the politicians have been known to push them into the oblivion by
promoting nepotism and corruption. Many of the public sector organizations run
with the government funds have stooped into bankruptcy due to the inefficient handling
of the administration. We have seen how once profit-making Air India has
slipped into the depths of loss due to the careless attitudes of people who sit
on its governing board.

Politicians Meddling with Reputed Organizations

In order to showcase their leadership and boost their
earning opportunities, the politicians occupy the managerial positions in the
top hierarchy of the organizations. After the elections, the top positions of
all government and public sector organizations are filled in a mutually
beneficial manner by the parties that are in power. This results in nepotism
and corruption at higher places, resulting in the loosing of business. We can
see a large number of examples like that. The politicians are looking for
avenues to earn money, not the ways to improve the organizations. As a result,
they favour out of turn people that provide big money for them, without caring
for the viability of the business. This seems to have even happened in Film and
Television Institute of India. This national institute has in the past produced
many illustrious people who have carved their niche in the film and television
industry. That is the reason why the institute has a high stake amongst
students who want to do something creative for people.

Present Scenario

According to the students of FTII, the governing council of
the institute has been occupied by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Rashtriya
Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) ideologues that have nothing to show creatively and
inspire them. They have come to occupy the coveted posts in the council just
because the ruling party has posted them on political considerations. Hence, they
wanted to stop this corrupt practice from occurring in the institute. This
issue snowballed into a controversy when the BJP appointed its confidant and
actor Gajendra Chauhan as its Chairman. The actor has not so inspiring body of
work to show and inspire the students. He seems to have worked for the BJP and
Narendra Modi during 2014 elections. Other than that, he has appeared in few
television serials, including famous Mahabaratha serial as Yudhishtara. This is
the reason why the students are raising their ante on this political
appointment.

Student Strike

The strike has entered into the second month and
there is no end in sight. Many artists have lent their support to the students
and urging Gajendra Chauhan to relinquish the post for the common good. Neither
the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I & B) nor the FTII students
are blinking. With both the parties taking rigid stand, the Ministry of I &
B has started the first step in the direction of finding a solution by inviting
the students for the talk. Let us wait and see how things unfold in the coming
days. The students are getting support from all walks of life as their cause is
just.

Friday, 12 June 2015

There seems to be no end to the invasion of silver screen by
the gigantic dinosaurs from Triassic Era. It all started with the cult-making
Jurassic Park. Brain child of Steven Spielberg, came at a time people knew the existence
of these gigantic creatures only in books. When they were created on the
screen, the film became instant hit among the moviegoers. Ever since then,
the filmmakers have been trying to milk some more from essence out of this
theme through their movies. It is in this backdrop, we are hearing about the
release of Jurassic World. The film has hit the screen on June 12, 2015.

Casts of the Movie

After some repetitions, now we come to know about another
movie on dinosaurs by reputed Hollywood Director Colin Trevorrow. The film has
some of the reputed and talented actors in the cast list. They are Chris Pratt,
Irrfan Khan, Vincent D’Onofio, Bryce Dallas Howard, etc. When you watch this
movie, you will no doubt make a comparison with the original movie from the wizardry
of Steven Spielberg.

Movie Story line

On predictable lines, you can see the Indian actor Irrfan
Khan stepping into the shoe of the actor Richard Attenborough of the first
movie as the owner of the park and the role of upright park manager handled by
Bryce Dallas Howard as Claire. Just like what we saw in the original film, the
billionaire park owner expected the dinosaurs owned by him to come up with some
traits that can entertain the masses. To meet the expectations of the park
owner, the Claire plays with the DNA of Dinosaurs to create ferocious species that
inherit the traits of T. Rex and intelligence of a highly skilled killer. As a
result, she is able to make albino Dino Indominus Rex with more teeth and
muscle power. As the
story unfolds, the hybrid dinosaur jumps the padlock to create the flutter
inside the park. At the same time, Claire’s nephews Gray (Ty Simpson) and Zack
(Nick Robinson) visit the park. Claire is not able to look after the nephews as
she goes after the raptor trainer-resident Owen (Chris Pratt). In the meantime,
the villain of the story Vic Hoskins (Vincent D’Ornofio) wants to weaponise the
dinosaurs so that they can be used in situations such as Tora Bora.

Story Review

The predictable storyline expects killer Dino to remain at
large killing and terrorizing people. The cast of the movie somehow escape the jaws
of death and keep the movie going through some edge-of-the-seat moments. These
casts have been glorified with their heroics and intelligence in the movie when
they are shown elegantly escaping from the clutches of the dinosaurs in the
park. From the hindsight, it looks as if the film is portraying how the
corporate world runs in a park. There are scenes in which this underlying theme
is shown. For instance, the toddlers are seen riding on the baby dinosaurs. Similarly,
mighty T. Rex has been shown doing some monkey tricks to entertain the
audience. Despite all these, the film is falling short of the benchmark set by
the cult-making film Jurassic Park in many aspects. This might irk the fans of
dinosaurs and films based on them.